Archive for October, 2017

﻿(CBS) Bulls wing Jimmy Butler has the eighth best-selling jersey in the NBA, the league announced Tuesday.

Bulls teammate Dwyane Wade has the 11th best-selling jersey. For the second straight season, Warriors guard Stephen Curry had the best-selling jersey in the league. The list is compiled based cheap authentic jerseys on NBAStore.com sales during this season.

A three-time All-Star, Butler is having a career year, averaging 23.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists while shooting 45.6 percent. Wade is averaging 18.5 points in his first season in Chicago.

﻿LOS ANGELES — All those years being so close to the ultimate goal have built up inside Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh and crystallized as extra motivation.

McDonagh was rewarded for his revitalized individual performance through the first half of this season by being the Rangers’ lone representative in this NHL All-Star weekend, starting with Saturday’s skills competition and followed by Sunday’s 3-on-3 tournament at Staples Center.

But last season’s disappointing five-game first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Penguins did not sit well with McDonagh, not after three of the previous four years ended in the conference final or the Stanley Cup final.

–– ADVERTISEMENT ––

“Like any player, you want to play up to your full potential or what you think is your best ability,” McDonagh told The Post prior to leaving for the break.

The Rangers are 31-17-1, two points out of third in the terrific Metropolitan Division, behind the Capitals, Blue Jackets and Penguins, while solidly eight points clear of the ninth-place Maple Leafs.

“Had a long summer to think and work on a lot of stuff,” McDonagh said. “Pretty motivated here to not only play for myself, but play for this team and get something done here. We’ve been talking about it for a while. So that’s been a big motivation key for me, keeping my focus on my game and where it needs to be.”

During those deep runs into the postseason, the Rangers’ strength always was defense and goaltending. But last season, the defense started to crack, and it seemed like all those cheap nhl jerseys authentic hard, tight-checking games were catching up to them. Even McDonagh, who splendidly skated his way to Norris Trophy consideration en route to the 2014 Stanley Cup final, where the lost to the Kings in five games, had fallen off. It was the culmination of injuries to his shoulder and his foot and all of those short summers inadequate for proper rehabilitation and a training regimen to prepare for the grind of the NHL season.

But general manager Jeff Gorton also saw how the past was going to affect the future. So he retooled his team under the tight restraints of the salary cap and added youth, speed and skill up front. Yet it still was imperative McDonagh respond for the Blueshirts to be good again.

He did, and they are.

“Our group is real focused,” McDonagh said. “We’ve been consistent in our game. For me, that really helps. Certainly we’re a fast team, and myself, as a good skater, want to try to keep evolving the play. And the skill that we’ve added, seems like more opportunities have been there for me to contribute offensively and defensively. So just really trying to focus on making the right read on if there’s an opportunity or not and also make sure I set a good example for a lot of the new faces here.”

Now in his third year of the captaincy, the broad-shouldered 27-year-old out of St. Paul, Minn., is becoming more comfortable in the limelight. If the “culture” of an organization can be described by example, then McDonagh is the one at whom the Rangers front office wants everyone to look.

“He’s grown into this position,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “He’s his own man. He understands the culture that myself and [Gorton] want to bring to this team. He’s a great extension of when we’re not around of what to do and how to do it. We’re very fortunate to have a gentleman of his caliber be captain of this team.”

It also helps that in his seventh season in the league, McDonagh is on pace to surpass his career-best points total. He is second on the team with 26 assists and has added two goals while continuing to grow into his role as the quarterback of the power play.

“Certainly the power-play time really helps, confidence-wise, especially plays on the blue line and getting shots,” he said. “Probably wish I had a few more goals at this point, but the way our forwards have been able to create opportunities, I feel like I’ve focused a lot on distributing and getting them pucks in situations to finish. So far, it’s helped us win a lot of hockey games.”

This is McDonagh’s second All-Star appearance after his debut last season in Nashville, Tenn. But what a difference a year can make, and McDonagh is proud to represent his own revitalized game as well as that of his team.

“Very excited, very honored,” McDonagh said. “We have a lot of guys on this team that are having great seasons and worthy of All-Star consideration, so I’ll try to represent our team as best I can.”

﻿Last season, the Nets finished with the worst record in the NBA at 20-62.

They “won” the NBA Draft Lottery and with the No. 1 overall pick selected … oh nevermind. Brooklyn had to swap picks with Boston (who ultimately traded the top pick to Philly) because of the Kevin Garnett-Paul Pierce trade.

Despite the rough 2016-17 campaign, Jeremy Lin is feeling very optimistic about the 2017-18 season.

“We’re making the playoffs,” Lin declared during a Q&A over the weekend. “I don’t care what anybody else tells you.”

The Nets did close the season by winning seven of their final 13 games.

Lin — who played in just 36 games because of a hamstring injury — averaged 14.5 points cheap jerseys authentic and 5.1 assists, and shot over 37 percent from 3-point territory.

Brooklyn acquired DeMarre Carroll from Toronto and D’Angelo Russell from the Lakers (but had to give up Brook Lopez).

How will Lin and Russell co-exist?

“I’m going to be at the 1, and then he’ll be at the … I’m not really sure to be honest,” Lin answered. “I’m pretty sure he will start at the 2 but it’ll be pretty interchangeable.

“And then when one of us is out the game, the other person will most likely have the ball in their hands. It will probably be a little bit combo guard-esque.”

During the 2010-11 season with the Warriors, Lin averaged 2.6 points and 1.4 assists over 29 appearances with the Warriors.

﻿Ryan Kesler‘s hip injury is expected to take longer to heal than originally anticipated.

Kesler told NHL.com Tuesday it could take four to five months to recover from off-season hip surgery. He had the surgery to remove bone fragments earlier this month, a procedure that was supposed to keep him sidelined for 12 weeks.

﻿LOS ANGELES — Chris Paul and James Harden have been training together since the Houston Rockets acquired Paul from the LA Clippers in a trade last month. They made their public debut as teammates Sunday in front of a standing-room-only crowd at Los Angeles’ famed Drew League.

Harden finished with game highs of 27 points and 12 rebounds, while adding six assists and two steals for his LAUNFD (pronounced “L.A. Unified”) team, which pulled out an 83-81 win over a Home Town Favorites team that featured current NBA players Jordan cheap authentic jerseys Bell, Delon Wright and Tim Hardaway Jr.

In the first half, the two point guards, who now must learn to share a backcourt, seemed to trade off ballhandling and playmaking duties with one player firmly in control of the possession and the other spotting up to shoot. But as the game went on, there was more synergy to their games.

It’s a harmonizing process they’ve worked on all summer, in open-court runs in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It’ll continue in the fall as well, as Rockets teammate Bobby Brown said the team is planning to continue to train together in L.A., then again in the Bahamas in late August.

It was something the Rockets did last summer as well, as they began learning coach Mike D’Antoni’s offense and facilitating Harden’s change to a lead guard position.

“That really helped us jell last year,” Brown said.

Despite playing for the Clippers for the previous six seasons, Paul had never played in the Drew League before Sunday’s game.

Paul watched Harden the week before, though, and he shook off a slow start to finish with 13 points and 10-assists. Before the prior week’s game, Brown informed Paul that he would need to play in order to be eligible for the Drew League playoffs that will start Friday.

“CP came to the game last week and he was itching to play,” Brown said. “After that, he texted me saying, ‘Yo, I want to play. Think it would be cool if I could play with y’all?’ I said, ‘No problem. It’s the Drew League, you haven’t played yet. You get your shine, you get your welcoming to the Drew on a good team, with your brother.’

“That was an easy call. He had fun,” added Brown, a four-time Drew League champion. “JH always has fun. Me and James have been playing together for the third year in a row.”

It was a star-studded event for the Drew League. Chicago Bulls guard Dwyane Wade made it to the game to watch courtside, along with Toronto Raptors All-Star DeMar DeRozan, who played earlier in the day with Nick Young of the Golden State Warriors and Julius Randle of the Los Angeles Lakers.

“There were hundreds of people outside waiting, coming and going because they couldn’t get in,” Drew League commissioner Chaniel Smiley said of the packed crowd Sunday. “Today’s crowd had to be on my top-two list.”

LAUNFD started the game with Harden, Paul, Bobby Brown, former NBA player Pooh Jeter, and 2018 ESPN 100 top high school player Marvin Bagley III. Home Town Favorites started Delon Wright, 12-year NBA veteran Dorell Wright, Hardaway, Golden State Warriors rookie Jordan Bell and USC sophomore DeAnthony Melton.

The stakes were actually high for Harden and Paul’s LAUNFD team, as they had to win to make the league’s postseason. Home Town Favorites got off to the fast start, getting 11 first quarter points from Hardaway to lead 29-22. Home Town Favorites led at halftime 44-40, with Paul making only one-of-eight from the field.

But Paul turned it on in the third quarter, making three 3-pointers and showing off his handle along the baseline at one point before making a step-back to force a Home Town Favorites timeout. LAUNFD outscored Home Town Favorites 26-9 in the third quarter before holding on to win.

LAUNFD played a lot like the Houston Rockets that GM Daryl Morey has fostered this decade, making and attempting more 3-pointers (16-of-44) than 2-pointers (15-of-35). Harden (6-of-15 on 3s) and Paul (3-of-11 on 3s) were a big part of that offensive mix, something that Brown noted was intentional.

“At the end of the day, our strong suit is shooting 3s,” Brown said. “We knew what type of game it was going to be. We knew the type of players we had. We just stuck through to the end and we came out with the win.”

At one point late in the game, Harden was stripped of the ball by Dorell Wright, leaving Harden shaken up and holding his left thumb. Harden would finish the game, but it was an uncomfortable moment for Houston Rockets CEO Tad Brown, who was sitting courtside.

“It was fun,” Brown said about the game. “It got a little suspect there when James wrecked his thumb. But overall, it was fun.”

It was reported that Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook would suit up for Home Town Favorites, and while Wright explained that there were conversations about Westbrook playing, he said that Westbrook is “in a different situation than a lot of us.”

“We talk about it often, you know, for the past few years. He wants to get out here,” said Wright, who, like Westbrook, went to Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, California. “[Westbrook] has a lot on the table right now. I’m pretty sure that whatever he had going on today, he had to handle that.

“He’ll get out here one of these days, and everybody will be pretty happy,” Wright added.

If Westbrook would have played, he would have had to negotiate with Melton to wear his signature No. 0.

“No, no, no, no,” Melton said when asked if he would have given up the number to Westbrook. “OK, maybe, we’ll see, I don’t know. He didn’t come, so that’s all we know,” Melton added with a smile on his face.